May 14, 2006

By Dr. Arthur B. Keys, Jr., President/CEO
International Relief and Development (IRD)
www.ird-dc.org

Scripture: Acts 4: 1-12. 'Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed, be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well."

This morning is Mother's Day. It is not an official part of the church calendar, but it is a part of our informal calendar. It is a day when we appreciate and honor motherhood. It is a day when we wear red corsages to honor our mothers that are living and white flowers for our mothers that have passed away.

The origins of Mothers Day began in the nineteenth century as a way to celebrate the growing political activism of women. It was an extension of the abolitionist movement, the fight for women's suffrage and the struggle for equal educational, professional and business opportunities for women. It was part of the larger justice struggle for peace and equality, opposition to child labor and support for worker's rights, extension of public health programs, support for child welfare and temperance. It was thought that the distinctive historic nurturing role of mothers in families could be harnessed as a part of the struggle to make the world a better place. In 1913, Congress declared the second Sunday May to be Mother's Day and the law was signed by President Woodrow Wilson, shortly before the Constitution was amended giving women the right to vote.

The three women led the fight to establish Mother's Day; Anna Reeves Jarvis, her daughter Anna Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." The Jarvis began the celebration of mother's day in West Virginia as way to improve sanitation in Appalachian communities and to reconcile opposing civil war veterans. Julia Ward Howe, published the powerful, Mother's Day Proclamation" as a protest to the brutality of the civil war and calling for an end to future wars.

A mother was concerned about her son's vocational future. She placed a Bible, a thousand dollar bill and a jug of whiskey on the desk in her son's room to test the boy. The mother figured that if her son chose the Bible, he would become a preacher and this would be good. If the son chose the thousand dollar bill, the mother figured her son would be a businessman and this would be good as well. And if he chose the whiskey, the mother figured he would be a drunkard and would always be in trouble. The boy came into the room and noticed the three items on the desk. He quickly picked up the Bible, placed it under his arm, put the thousand dollar bill in his pocket and grabbed the jug and took a swig of whiskey. The mother was dumbfounded, confused and surprised and called out, "My God, he's going to be a politician!"

Today we can take inspiration from the impulse that motivated these women at the same time experience has shown that life is more complicated and social problems more intractable. We truly live in an international community. Through the media and the internet, we are connected to all parts of the world. We live in a world that appears to have lost its way. We see a world where nuclear proliferation is on the rise from established nations like Iran and where international terrorism and Al-Qaeda seem to gain strength. Poverty and hunger is widespread today, the health of the majority of the world's population is atrocious, economic disparities and ecological degradation is increasing. Wars continue to spread and outpace our capacity for resolution and women's rights are contested throughout the world. And the international trafficking of women is a major social issue.

II. But in the midst of all this despair and gloom, there are new forces of change at work. Major advances are being made in information technology. International trade and population migration is accelerating. In most parts of the world, infant mortality has decreased, childhood diseases have been eradicated and life spans are lengthening.

But the force for change that most encourages me is the spirit of activism, volunteerism and social change. It is gratifying to see people catch the spirit to join the Peace Corps, the spirit that causes people to voluntarily assist victims to help deal with complex emergencies!

The physical and human disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina, outstripped the ability of established agencies of government like FEMA to handle it and the agency itself broke down. The Red Cross and local governments were overwhelmed. Individual motivated citizens and non-governmental organizations stepped into the vacuum caused by this social and political meltdown. NGOs have increasingly been called upon to lead or to encourage others to lead in one crisis after another. Many religious organizations were part of the first responders. All of them concentrated on the needs of their own members and institutions and a few were able to devote their energies to assist the larger community.

The irony is that governments have often not been able to sufficiently address these complex emergencies. But at the same time, these social problems are of sufficient magnitude, that they require the resources of governments to address them. Private charity is a beginning but it is not enough. You cannot feed the millions of displaced refugees and internally displaced persons without national and international governmental resources.

On December 26, 2004, the most significant tsunami in recent history struck the coasts of Indonesia and nine other countries, affected and displaced two million people, killing over 225,000 people in an instant. International Relief and Development (IRD), with an established office, staff and program in Indonesia, made an immediate response. We sent medicines and medical supplies, food and clothing to Aceh. But most importantly we sent our staff with their technical expertise and compassion. These motivated young people, lived in modest conditions with no hot running water for months.

One young woman on our HQ staff wanted to do more. She had a good general liberal arts education and worked on a community organizing project in the Montgomery County. She worked on numerous projects in the DC headquarters office: program development, communications, and health. But she was moved by all of the human suffering and accepted the challenge to make a difference. She volunteered to go to Aceh to support the psycho-social and other community-based health projects. And guess what? She is now studying for a Master of Public Health degree. She took risks to help others and her life was changed as a result.

NGOs are also engaged in the most difficult social crises of our time such as Iraq. Some organizations have shied away from involvement in Iraq. Some have stayed out for ideological reasons because they opposed the Administration's policies. Some have stayed out for security reasons. But it is my belief that NGOs need desperately to be engaged where the real world issues are the most difficult.

The developing Iraqi NGO sector is one of the few encouraging signs and needs to be supported by the international community. IRD has 150 staff in Baghdad, Erbil, Kirkuk, Dahuk, Karbala and Fallujah. They risk their lives everyday but they have completed 480 infrastructure projects including health clinics, rehabilitated schools, and sewage and power projects benefiting 12 million people. 35,000 full-time jobs have been created. One thing is clear: Iraqis want this kind of help as they struggle to rejoin the rest of the world.

For NGOs, it is important that programs are "needs driven." At times this will place them at odds with local, country or international political and religious leaders. But NGOs that are "needs driven" and not ideological attract support across the political and religious divides. The IRD Indonesia program has major broad-based support from such disparate groups as UN agencies, the US Government, other NGOs and Latter Day Saints Charities.

III. In our scripture, what causes Peter to ironically joust with the established political and religious leaders who had put the disciples in jail? What causes him to ask if they are being examined and jailed because they did a good deed to a cripple? What gives the incarcerated Peter the chutzpa to confront raw power and authority? What gives Peter the strength to envision a different and better world? And what give Peter the ability to heal cripples in the face of such opposition?

The answer lies in true grit. True grit is the quality of life that enables us to allow the Lord of Hosts to prepare a table before me in the presence of our enemies. True grit is the element needed to make our Christian faith come alive. True grit is the ingredient in life that you need to succeed. This is the ingredient and quality that I hope you have received at UCCSV. But whether you have received it or not, we all know that life will quickly test us. This is what we need to add to our Christian faith to make it effective. This is the leaven we need to make our bread rise. This is what we need to push the edge of the envelope, to succeed in life, to survive in the dog-eat-dog world.

A chicken has no teeth. They can drink water and swallow grass and fine meal or chicken feed. But they cannot digest food or gain energy without also ingesting a sandy substance called grit. The grit goes into their gizzard and all the food that comes into their stomach is then forced through this organ. Grit enables the chicken to convert the raw food into usable nutrition. It enables the hen to have the energy to produce and lay eggs that have a nice hard outer calcium shell. A little bit of grit transforms the lowly chicken into the provider of the most perfect food -- the egg.

In the novel, "True Grit", by Charles Portis, which was made into a film where John Wayne received his only Academy Award, Mattie Ross, a young 14-year-old girl and accountant from west Arkansas frontier, seeks revenge for the murder of her father at the hands of a vagabond hired man. She is very religious, virtuous and quotes scripture every time she comes under pressure.

But she quickly comes face to face with the real world and learns that she cannot achieve her objective of arresting her father's murderer without the help of a tough, cussing, gun slinging, heavy drinking, deputy US Marshall, Rooster Cogburn and a bounty hunting Texas Ranger.

The three of them bond as they determine they have a common purpose and set out into Indian Territory to seek the scoundrel who has linked up with a notorious gang. She uses Cogburn's greed for money and alcohol and his true grit to achieve her goal of retribution and justice. Mattie Ross transitions from an innocent young girl into a mature young woman as she single mindedly pursues her goal and exhibits true grit herself. In the process, the drunken Marshall softens his approach and becomes an instrument of healing and justice.

True grit is the necessary ingredient needed to help you grind through the challenges of life, digest and reflect on your experience and keep on going. True grit is what you need to keep from conforming to the world as it is and becoming bogged down and overwhelmed. All of us need to keep centered in our daily lives. True grit is what you need in every occupation and profession to make a difference.

In my own life, grit is the quality I need when the going gets rough. As they say, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. It is not always easy for us to encourage our children to take risks or ingest grit into their system. We are trained to protect you and support them within the system, as it is. We are not boat rockers. The late minister of Riverside Church in New York, William Sloane Coffin said it this way. "Had Jesus heeded both his parents and the religious authorities of his day, instead of saving he world he would have become the best carpenter in Nazareth. Were our children to heed us and the religious authorities of our day, they'd all become nicely packaged citizens--safe, polite, and obedient."

Peter had true grit. The religious authorities were annoyed the scripture says, because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead and healing cripples. So they arrested them!! Fine treatment! They questioned and examined the disciples, they put them on trial and asked, "By what power or by what name did you do this?" The indignant Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, since he evidently lacked the courage, strength and grit to answer on his own said, "Dear Rulers, priests, elders and scribes of the temple, who are questioning and examining us today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means has this man been healed?" Peter challenges the established political and religious order by declaring that they are missing the whole point, when you ask by what means has this cripple been healed? The need of the cripple determined their actions and not the established political and religious norms and authorities of the day.

Peter proclaims that he has true grit because of his belief that even though the world crucified Jesus of Nazareth, God raised Jesus from the dead, and that this gives him to power to heal the man standing in front of them. This is consistent with my own experience in life. I believe that we need to call on a higher power to give us true grit to get through life's crises.

In the end, it is not the well-motivated individual nor the NGO public health program or the doctor or hospital that heals the cripple. It is your belief in God, the force outside of yourself that heals the cripple. It is ability to open up to the power of the Holy Spirit that heals the cripple. It is this belief in a higher power that simultaneously motivates us to do good acts on behalf of others and with others that keep us humble enough to realize that no human action is possible without this faith.

The Christian believes that the Holy Spirit actively fills us and calls us to action. Other religious faiths articulate this belief in different ways that lead to a respect for human dignity. This religious impulse motivates well meaning people to take risks to heal cripples, physically, mentally and spiritually.

IV. Closing: My prayer is that you will go forth on this Mother's Day, filled with the spirit of activism, volunteerism and social change that motivated the early leaders of the Mother's Day movement to fight for a better, more peaceful and just world. It is my prayer that you will develop true grit to convert your Christian education to a successful life that includes service to others. And it is my prayer that your life will open to the ways that Holy Spirit will lead you on your life's journey.

Amen.